Fred Thompson: Conservative Films Not Made Because of Hollywood 'Cocktail Currency'

Washington has been described as Hollywood for ugly people, and actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson said that films with conservative themes are tough to greenlight in Hollywood because its “movers and shakers” are captive to the same herd mentality that infects Washington.

“They operate and do their jobs for the praise and benefit of each other more than anybody else,” Thompson said on a Friday panel at CPAC.

He also said Hollywood largely markets to a “mostly foreign market,” which impacts the number of “pro-American” movies depicting FBI, CIA, and businessmen in a good light.

Thompson stated that good movies with pro-American themes that families can go see because they show the “triumph of good values” do well at the box office, but not enough get made.

“There’s not that many people who know how to do that or are willing to do that to the possible scorn of their colleagues,” Thompson said.

John Sullivan, the co-director of 2016: Obama’s America,moderated the panel and said there was a “double currency” in Hollywood. One deals with the bottom line, while the other is what he called the “cocktail currency.”

He told the story of a president of a movie studio jumping up and down in excitement as he talked to him about President Ronald Reagan behind closed doors, but then he suddenly started whispering in the hallway, even though he was in charge of the studio.

Sullivan said that was the moment he realized the uphill battle conservatives in Hollywood would always have to fight.